Just weeks after the speech of the Foreign Minister at the UN Human Rights Council in which she explained that the government had placed a moratorium on death sentences since 2008, a condemn man was this morning executed by hanging. Mr. Hussain was an army soldier who was sentenced to death in 2009 for murdering one of his colleagues.
A jail official, Abdullah Khan Niazi, told the media that authorities hanged Mohammed Hussain early on Thursday morning, November 15, in Mianwali city in central Punjab province. Niazi said that the president and the head of the army, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, had rejected Hussain’s mercy petition. With regard to military prisoners the correct procedure is that the appeal for mercy is be sent to the Chief of Army Staff, that officer then decides to allow it or reject it. In this case General Kayani chose to reject the appeal and forwarded it to the President who has the final say. Although the president is indeed the final authority in the matter of death sentences but the fact that this case came from the Chief of Army Staff the president obviously felt that he was under obligation to concede to his wishes.
Regrettably this is further proof that the government of Pakistan cowers before the army and is not prepared to respect its own pledges made before the international community. On several occasions Pakistan has said that it will abolish the death sentence, converting it to life imprisonment. In fact, in 2010 Pakistan ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Article 6 (1) of which states: Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law………
Also, it is no secret that the right wing parties and Muslim extremists are firmly and vociferously against the abolition of the death penalty. Could this execution be yet another offering by the government in its policy of appeasement to the extremist elements?
The execution of Mohammed Hussain is a blatant violation of the right to life by a country that has pledged before the United Nations its intention to halt executions. There are more than 8000 persons on death row in the country and they are looking to the government to take positive action on its pledge to abolish the death sentence.
The Asian Human Rights Commission condemns the execution of Mohammed Hussain and calls on Pakistan to honour its pledges to the international community. In fact, Pakistan has commuted the death penalty before. Former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and founder of the current ruling party, the Pakistan People’s Party, commuted the death sentence to life imprisonment but ironically he himself was later hung by the military. His daughter and former Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto also pledged several times to abolish the death sentence.
The country’s parliamentary bodies, the national assembly and senate, in April, 2010 approved the 18th Amendment to the Constitution deleting the majority of the amendments made by past military rulers. However, the parliament did not touch on the amendment made to the constitution by General Zia Ulhaq comprising the death penalty. In the 1970s, the government led by the late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto raised the minimum term of a life sentence from 14 to 25 years with the idea that capital punishment would be abolished in the years to come. However, this did not materialize and General Zia, the country’s military ruler from 1977 to 1988, kept both the death penalty and the increased life sentence intact through an ordinance which was later incorporated in the Constitution. Mr. Bhutto was later hanged in 1979. Former President Musharraf did nothing to alter either the death sentence or the minimum term.
The federal cabinet decided on July 2, 2008 to commute the death sentence. However, Mr. Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan has also announced that death sentences will be commuted in his first press conference after taking the presidential oath. The prime minister also announced on June 21, 2008, that death sentences will be commuted to life imprisonment but failed to issue the notification.
The AHRC urges the government of Pakistan to commute all death sentences to life imprisonment and abolish the death penalty, military or civilian, without delay. The country must live up to the pledges it has made since in 2008. Pakistan must also ratify the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty, bringing domestic legislation into line with its international obligations and ensuring the full implementation of this legislation.
